because it was something on
which he could collaborate
with Knapik and Polish acting
students.
Collaboration
made sense, Tulip explained,
because
of
their
shared
artistic views, in addition
to the political unrest under
conservative administrations.
“These
more-to-the-right
administrations … seemed to
be a common bond,” Tulip
said. “We had artistic things
in common, we had political
struggles in common.”
Music, Theatre & Dance
professor Vince Mountain,
one of the designers of the play,
discussed the performance’s
visual aspects and explained
how a combination of visuals,
movement and sound are used
to make the play come alive.
He noted his appreciation of
the unrefined, messy nature
of Mee’s plays.
“(Mee) talks about on his
website … he likes things that
aren’t neat,” Mountain said.
“He says I want things to
crash into each other and be
messy and be unresolved, and
I do find a lot of mainstream
theater is a little bit too neat.
Personally, in my own work,
I like things that are messy
and crash into each other and
so the opportunity to do this
is really great because you do
one thing, and other people
contribute.”
Kovacs prompted the cast
members to speak about their
experience working on a play
with a unique, movement-
based style. Music, Theatre
& Dance junior Amanda Kuo
was one of the actors who
responded, touching on the
freedom
and
vulnerability
using her body to convey a
message.
“Knowing that this was
a dance theater piece also
meant displaying your body
and using that as a means of
storytelling and putting an
emphasis on that,” Kuo said.
“It’s slightly liberating, but
also puts you in a vulnerable
place because it’s your body,
it’s your whole self, not just
the text. So in that way, this
process has pushed us to stop
thinking and just start doing,
and trusting each other and
creating images.”
Knapik explained how she
pushed the actors to explore
their
movements,
giving
them room to improvise and
create, but at the same time
making sure they were testing
themselves.
“It’s not addressing what
people are dancing but what is
really moving them,” Knapik
said. “Addressing what kind
of motion they have inside.
Really I’m trying to make it
in a very specific rhythm that
can be challenging also for
them. It’s something between
being super strict and giving
freedom to the creativity.”
This
creativity
and
improvisation really appealed
to Music, Theatre & Dance
senior Kathleen Taylor, who
spoke about her appreciation
of the play not adhering to one
single statement.
“It’s been really fascinating
for me to be able to work on
this piece that is sort of messy
and is not necessarily making
any one particular statement
other
than
that
every
decision we make is political,
everything we’re putting out
into the world at least I believe
during this time has inherent
political value,” Taylor said.
Music, Theatre & Dance
junior
Daniel
Flick
said
attending the play would be a
valuable experience for every
potential audience member.
“I don’t think there’s a
specific audience I would
want to see this,” Flick said.
“I think everyone can take
something away from it and
I think it will challenge
everyone’s beliefs in a certain
way to a certain extent.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, September 20, 2018 — 3
of state it can be a real motivator
for people to come out that don’t
normally because it’s so unique.”
Stabenow, who is up for
reelection in November, opened
the
event
by
stressing
the
importance of voting in the
midterm election. Among other
prominent issues this year, she
highlighted clean water, universal
health care, net neutrality, college
debt alleviation and Great Lake
protections.
“You understand what’s at
stake,” Stabenow said. “We are
at a point in time where literally
everything we care about is on
the ballot.”
She also acknowledged the
historically lackluster turnout
rates across the state and stressed
this election needs to be a turning
point for Michigan.
“Michigan
traditionally,
unfortunately, has the distinction
of being the state with the lowest
turnout
in
non-presidential
years,” Stabenow said. “Think
about that. This year, we have to
change that.”
In both the 2014 and 2010
midterm
elections,
however,
voter turnout in Michigan was
above the national averages of 37.8
and 36.3 percent, respectively.
Voter turnout rates for the 2018
primary rose from 2014 levels,
however, indicating turnout may
increase come November.
Kennedy began his segment by
asking the audience members to
shout out what issues they cared
about the most. He collected
a long list of issues –– climate
change, access and affordability of
higher education, a woman’s right
to choose, gun control, universal
health care, immigration, racial
inequality –– and had audience
members raise hands to vote their
personal top three issues.
He then shared some statistics
about today’s economy and the
financial
hurdles
millennials
face.
According
to
Kennedy,
millennials have to work 4,500
hours of a minimum wage job to
afford a college degree, whereas
baby boomers only had to work
300 hours.
Additionally, Kennedy said,
20 percent of the economy is
now essentially a contract or gig
economy, so the protections that
came with secure employment
are gone. He also shared about
half of millennials have zero
savings. Kennedy used these facts
as a motivator for young voters to
be engaged and decide on policies
that will benefit their futures and
ease financial anxieties.
“I promise you, you will decide
this election, period,” Kennedy
said. “You’ll decide it because
you vote, or you’ll decide it
because you don’t … You guys
have a chance to actually send a
message to every single politician
and aspiring politician about the
direction of the nation that we see
today.”
Kildee,
Dingell,
Driskell
and Brown also talked about
the importance of youth voter
engagement in the midterms.
Kildee discussed Flint, Michigan,
which lies in his congressional
district, as an example of failed
government leadership.
“What happened in Flint was
not a storm, it wasn’t an accident.
It
wasn’t
some
unforeseen,
unpreventable disaster,” Kildee
said. “It was the predictable result
of a philosophy of government
that says those kids (from Flint)
come last, and the people at the
top – the wealthy, the powerful
– are the folks who are going to
get the resources that could have
guaranteed clean water for these
kids.”
Dingell, along with several
of the other speakers, brought
attention to the Big Ten Voting
Challenge, a competition among
the 14 Big Ten universities to
get the highest student turnout
rate on campus for the midterm
elections.
LSA
sophomore
Marni
Balamut attended the event in
preparation for voting in the
midterm election.
“Obviously with the midterms
it’s so important to be voting and
especially as young people, the
policies of this presidency affects
us so much,” Balamut said. “To
be able to hear Congressmen and
people really representing us talk
to us as real people and telling us
important issues and stuff from
their experience is important.”
After the event, Lounds said
she was happy with the student
turnout, as well as the quality of
speakers she was able to secure.
“We have such a force of
Democratic
power
in
the
southeast side of the state,”
Lounds said. “It’s awesome to get
them all together and see what
we can really do together.”
DEMS
From Page 1A
PANEL
From Page 1A
Professor
Kristin
Hass
is
currently teaching a course on
Detroit and finds the increased
programs and initiatives in
Detroit exciting.
“We have a lot to learn from
the history of the city and the
people of the city,” Hass said. “I
wouldn’t want to over-promise
on the impact, (but) everybody
aspires to have a positive impact
on the city.”
Holloway said the goal for
initiatives and programs is for
the University and the city to
mutually benefit. To further
the productivity of programs,
Holloway said local support is
important. The University has
300 projects grounded in and
around Detroit.
“In order to accomplish our
goals in relation to research
and education, we have to do
that with local support and
local partners. We want to
realize the reciprocal benefit,
working with local partners.
The dialogue is important.”
Underlying the University’s
new ventures in Detroit is
its pre-existing relationship
with the city — or at times, a
lack thereof. The University
was founded in Detroit in
1817, but departed for Ann
Arbor two decades later. In
the
last
half-century,
city
residents have lived through
post-industrial
decline,
bankruptcy
and
population
loss — and some members
of the campus community
question the motives behind
the University’s partnerships.
“There was a point at which
my recommendation was that
we pull out of Detroit altogether
— that we didn’t really mean
it,” former professor Martha
Jones told The Daily last
summer. “Now that was more
of a provocation, but it’s not so
far-fetched. That would be in
keeping with one vision of who
we are. As an institution, we’re
very late in coming to Detroit...
we weren’t sure if we wanted
to be a university that just
happened to be in southeastern
Michigan. A few years ago, I
wound up doing a survey of
all the programs in Detroit
emanating from Ann Arbor,
and there are scores of them.
But after itemizing them, they
didn’t really have one coherent
mission or vision.”
In a similar vein, University
alum
Stephen
Wallace
criticized common research
approaches to Detroit. Wallace,
a
Detroit
native,
sparked
debate at a Ford School policy
talk two years ago wherein a
Detroit deputy mayor called
the city a policy “laboratory.”
“I found that referring to
Detroit as a laboratory for
public
policy
experiments
(was) very offensive because
you’re dealing with people’s
real lives,” Wallace pointed
out. “I am very fortunate to
come out of my neighborhood
DETROIT
From Page 1A
and go to one of the best schools
in the world, but I had a lot of
opportunities that some people
don’t have and to refer to
their lives and their futures as
experiments … is a very slippery
slope. It causes you to view
the city and the people in it as
something less than human.
University
alum
Michael
Chrzan is a native of Detroit and
now teaches math to Detroit high
school students. He said when
the programs are well developed,
they can be valuable to the
community.
“I’m a fan of large institutions
doing work like this if it’s done
in conscious ways, where there’s
clear thought given on the impact
on the community,” Chrzan said.
“One of the big critiques I’ve
heard of Michigan, especially
the School of Ed, is that the work
they do, they almost are using
students as guinea pigs. It’s a fine
line between research.”
He also stressed the University
does try and balance research
with understanding the students.
The P-20 Partnership is a
program that Chrzan thinks is
needed, emphasizing the idea
of a teacher residency would be
useful.
“The teacher residency was
an idea they were trying to pilot
when I was in a teaching intern
program,” Chrzan said. “I was
really excited to hear about
that, we really need it in the
profession.”
According to Holloway, the
University operates under three
principles when meeting with
communities
for
dialogue:
recognition,
respect
and
equitable partnership.
“When we engage with a
partner in Detroit, they’re giving
us their time and their support,
and we need to respect that,”
Holloway said.
Hass agreed the University
should approach Detroit with
respect.
“I
emphasize
approaching
the whole thing with humility,”
Hass said. “Detroit as a city and
the people of the city are not
anybody’s laboratory. I think the
presence of the University could
be a wonderful thing.”
Chrzan mentioned growing
up in east Detroit, he didn’t hear
much from the University. Even
today, he said the University
might want to consider which
regions they focus on and invest
in.
“There are a lot of investments
being made in northwest and
western regions that I’m not
hearing
about
in
eastside
neighborhoods, which gets into
the crisis of ‘New Detroit,’”
Chrzan said. “If the University
isn’t careful they could wind up
exacerbating things like that.”
As for the new space in the
Rackham
Memorial
Building,
Holloway said the University
could use the new area for
classrooms
and
community
dialogue.
“The purchase of the Rackham
Building is part of a statement
really from the University that
we think we have a long-term
engagement with Detroit.”
Knowing
that this
was a dance
theater piece
also meant
displaying your
body and using
that as a means
of storytelling
Washtenaw County
Commissioners
will consider first
salary raise since
2013 vote
Elected officials to vote on new bill
proposing 70 percent salary raise to
bring average wage to $27,056/year
The
Ways
and
Means
committee
of
the
Washtenaw County Board of
Commissioners discussed a
salary raise Wednesday night.
The nine elected officials
currently make an average of
$15,911 per year—under the
new proposal, these wages
could rise to $27,056 over
the next two years. Though
The Daily could not confirm
whether the measure was
voted on Wednesday night,
the proposed salaries would
represent close to a 70 percent
increase.The measure seeks
to pay the commissioners—
who serve in their capacities
part-time—45 percent of the
median income in Washtenaw
County.
County
Board
Chairman Andy LaBarre (D)
told MLive he expects the
raises to pass with most of the
board’s support.
“This is certainly a job
where, if you’re looking to do
it right, it can come to a half-
time commitment, sometimes
even
more
if
you’re
in
leadership,” he said. “But
right now, the wage we pay I
think sort of produces a board
that either has folks who are
no longer in the workforce,
folks who are maybe students
or have a non-traditional
setup, or some folks, if they
have
full-time
jobs,
they
either have to have a lot of
flexibility in those jobs or
they’re not able to do as much
as other commissioners.”
The
average
wage
for
county commissioners in the
state of Michigan is currently
$18,700.
The
board
last
made
headlines for unanimuously
adopting a racial equity policy
earlier this month. The salary
measures will go before the
entire board for confirmation
on Oct. 3.
RIYAH BASHA
Managing News Editor
that’s built into corrections,” he
said. “Even though it’s called
corrections, there is a bias to
keep you illiterate, to keep you
at a remedial level, and it takes
a village to get former inmates
back into society.”
When Sanders was released,
he
was
helped
by
several
University of Michigan and
Wayne State University social
work interns as well as his sisters
to get a state identification
card and health insurance, in
addition to completing other
re-entry regulatory steps. He
claimed one of his proudest
accomplishments since prison
was registering and later voting
for
gubernatorial
candidate
Abdul El-Sayed.
“This
is
very
important
for you guys: Determine your
own fate, and don’t do it just
after the primary, do it so you
aren’t left with someone that
somebody else picked for you,”
he said. “The same day I got out
of prison, being there for almost
43 years, first thing I did was
register to vote. And I went with
Abdul.”
Sanders’
transition
back
into society was a difficult
one, especially in terms of
finding work. He was hired at
McDonald’s after a successful
interview, when his status as a
former felon wasn’t mentioned
until the end. He hopes to
contribute to the field of social
work or law in the future.
Sanders mentioned Gov. Rick
Snyder’s ban on the checkbox
designating former felons on job
applications as an institutional
step in the right direction.
Sanders received help from
the
Unviersity’s
Information
Alliance
for
Community
Development, which he said
was essential to gaining fluency
in digital work applications and
general technological skills.
Rackham
student
Ihudiya
Ogburu
researches
digital
literacy
in
the
School
of
Information,
and
described
the effort of this organization
and why she felt compelled to
spearhead the program.
“I’m
interested
in
understanding how returning
citizens or people who were
formerly
incarcerated
use
technology in general, and how
they go about looking for jobs
in this digital society,” she said.
“We just finished interviewing
last week, it’s on Sundays from
2:00 to 5:00 pm, and we want to
further recruit volunteers.”
Graduate
student
Yixian
Zhou explained her interest
in
the
transitionary
period
between
incarceration
and
returning to society brought her
to the lecture.
“The reason why I came here
is that I’m curious about this
topic — there are a few topics
about how when people came
from prison, and how people
transition and adapt into normal
life. This is a completely different
life than in prison. I’m curious
about that, and also how people
handle mental health issues
and change their thoughts and
conceptions to adapt to society.”
PARALEGAL
From Page 1A